"Please read the directions in your test booklet as I read them aloud to you. You are about to take Session 1 of the Sunshine State Standards Reading Test. This test will count towards your graduation eligibility. At this time you should have nothing on your desks except for your Sunshine State Standards Reading Test booklet, your Sunshine State Standards Reading Test answer sheet and a #2 pencil."
"You will have 70 minutes to complete session 1. We will take a five minute stretch break after forty minutes. You may not talk or leave the room at any time during this test. Now look at your answer booklet as we check to see if your information is correctly..."
"Quick students! While the county administrator is out of the room, I must use this opportunity to tell you the truth! I only have a few moments before she returns, so be quiet and listen closely."
"I'm a teacher here. Some of you have had my class, but most of you have never met me before. But that doesn't matter, I'm speaking for all your teachers right now. There's something we need you to know before you take the test, something we're not supposed to tell you, something we can't say when they are watching."
"We are on your side. We understand. We get what you are going through."
"As teenagers, it is your time-honored prerogative to complain about how school is stupid, how it's all a big waste of your time, and how your parents don't understand. And normally that's all crap; I know it was when I was your age. But the thing is, you guys are at least partially right! A huge portion of what you are doing in school is stupid and a waste of your time, and your parents don't understand, because it wasn't this bad when we were your age."
"When previous generations of kids, like your teachers and parents, went through high school, we didn't have these tests. We took maybe one or two a year, depending on where you lived. But those tests measured the students, and they were used for placement. Now the tests are used to rate the schools and the school districts, so all of a sudden, passing them becomes the only important thing, and the curriculum is changed, gutted, to address that goal. And we teachers were told what and how to teach, all in the hope of getting better passing rates on the test, rather than focusing on creating well educated, well rounded students."
"You have to realize, that none of us got into teaching for this. It was never our intent to spend all our time on test preparation. We all love our subject matter, and would love nothing more than to share with you what we've learned, and provide you with the same level of attention and care that we received from the teachers that inspired us to become teachers ourselves."
"We think you deserve a good education, not this constant barrage of tests. We don't want to have to stop our teaching just to take our classes down to the computer lab for endless practice tests, or shut down the whole school twice a year for diagnostic testing, and then again for the real thing. We know it's bullshit, just like you do. We're on your side."
"But none of that helps the situation. We have to give you these tests, and you have to pass them. But you can't give up! If you just write the test off, you're writing yourself off, and validating the whole broken system."
"So do your best, and pass this test! Get free and don't let the system ruin your love of knowledge and your ability to learn. But you have to pass the test and- she's coming back, be cool!"
"Be sure to bubble in your answers completely, and if you change an answer, make sure you erase your answers and leave no mark on your paper. You may now turn to page 1 in your test booklet and begin."
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